A Picture is Worth...a Lot of Problems

January 21, 2008

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A nap at the coin laundry might produce pleasant dreams. However, add a teenager with a camera and a police officer to this scenario, and you end up with more of a nightmare.A Brooklyn teen says he was arrested and beaten for taking a picture of a uniformed police officer while he was asleep in a coin laundry, the New York Post reports. NYPD officials say this is a lie. A picture of the officer sitting on a chair in the laundry appears in the newspaper. It’s unclear whether he is asleep.The confrontation occurred recently after the teenager says he refused to surrender the camera, and was handcuffed and kicked, suffering a broken nose in the process.An NYPD spokesman says a witness saw the officer awake and on a meal break inside the laundry, when the teenager and a friend began taunting him about having taken his picture. The officer asked the pair if they were doing laundry, the spokesman adds. They allegedly refused to respond, and the officer asked them to leave. They refused to produce IDs or leave, the spokesman says.Other officers were called. The teenager punched one of the officers in the face and was injured in the ensuing scuffle, authorities say.